In 1957, 6,000 scientists from 66 nations achieved the impossible: they erased political borders for 18 months to unlock Earths greatest mysteries—and changed science forever.
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957 marked humanitys first unified effort to understand our planet, launching the space race, discovering the Van Allen radiation belts, and producing groundbreaking climate research that shapes our world today. Through exclusive interviews with modern climate leaders—including the late marine biologist and climate researcher Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, science diplomat and Senior Fellow at United Nations Institute for Training and Research Paul Arthur Berkman, Frank Niepold at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), science historian Rebecca Charbonneau, and many more—author Mark OConnell reveals how this historic collaboration offers a blueprint for tackling todays environmental challenges.
Key discoveries from this groundbreaking initiative:
Sparked the space race and satellite technology development
Led to the first comprehensive mapping of ocean floors
Produced the Antarctic Treaty, protecting an entire continent
Established the foundation for modern climate science
Created a model for international scientific cooperation
As climate change threatens our planet, The Year Science Changed Everything shows how the spirit of global scientific unity that transformed 1957 might be our best hope for safeguarding Earths future.
Mark OConnell is an author, screenwriter, featured television commentator, and university lecturer. He got his start in television, writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. OConnell was Co-Executive Producer and on-camera expert on the reality show UFO Witness, a recurring guest on the TV show Fright Club, and Co-Producer of a Discovery+ documentary about best-selling author Whitley Strieber. OConnell is the author of The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOS, a biography of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the famed astrophysicist, science educator, and UFO researcher and inspiration behind Steven Spielbergs epic film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Currently, OConnell is a featured commentator discussing the science and history of UFOs in UFOs: Investigating the Unknown, a documentary mini-series for the National Geographic Channel, now streaming on Hulu, and soon on VICE and Disney +. He is also on the screenwriting faculty of the College of Computing & Digital Media at DePaul University.
"All readers interested in the history of science will welcome this book." ~Booklist
“The Year Science Changed Everything is a treat. Delving into the work and results of the IGY, O’Connell shows that international cooperation in science is possible on a grand scale. O’Connell is enough of a storyteller that the chapters flow by quickly, but the main lessons of the book will stay with the reader for a long time to come…. a must-read for anyone interested in the history of science in the 20th century.” ~E. Kirsten Peters, PhD, geologist and author of The Whole Science of Climate
“The Year Science Changed Everything takes readers on a tour of the world we live in and how the scientific community has come to better understand it in the decades since 1957. While covering topics from the northern lights to tectonics to the science of climate, O’Connell neatly intersperses interviews with currently active scientists, showing how and why the International Geophysical Year continues to be relevant to our daily lives.” ~Peter Kelly-Detwiler, author of The Energy Switch
“I dont like the current political discourse in our country. Your book may be a sharp pointy thing that is necessary for our times.” ~George A. Weidner, Researcher, UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies
